The Agreement enables television organisations in Parties to authorise or prohibit, throughout the territory of the Parties to the Agreement, the re-broadcasting, diffusion by wire, audiovisual recording and other means by which their broadcasts are utilised. The Parties can make protected utilisations subject to given reservations, and in particular can withhold completely the protection of wire distribution.

The aim of the Protocols to the Agreement was to require that Parties to the Agreement shall become Parties to the Rome Convention of 26 October 1961. The most recent version of Article 13, paragraph 2, of the Agreement, as amended by Additional Protocol (ETS No. 113), reads:

"...as from 1 January 1990, no State may remain or become a Party to this Agreement unless it is also a Party to the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations signed in Rome on 26 October 1961".